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Today’s Lesson in Geometry: Shooting a President

As a student of social sciences and politics and being fully cognizant of how vile and sick people can be, I’m at the point where nothing seems to shock me any more. Nevertheless, I’ll occassionally read something that leaves me filled with a deeply-rooted sense of consternation. Case it point:

A Jefferson County teacher picked the wrong example when he used as­sassinating President Bar­ack Obama as a way to teach angles to his geome­try students.

Someone alerted autho­rities and the Corner High School math teacher was questioned by the Secret Service, but was not taken into custody or charged with any crime.

[…]

The teacher was appar­ently teaching his geometry students about parallel lines and angles, officials said. He used the example of where to stand and aim if shooting Obama.

“He was talking about angles and said, ‘If you’re in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,’ ” said Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class.

Anonymous: I don’t know what blog you’ve been reading, but I would NEVER, EVER, EVER, condone murder against an elected officer, ESPECIALLY the POTUS. In fact, I think that EVERY person who claims to be an American should be outraged whenever talks about killing a president take place…REGARDLESS TO WHO THAT PRESIDENT IS!!! Our country has lost nearly 10% of our presidents by an assassin’s bullet. These numbers are unacceptable and deplorable.

I never did like Bush, I don’t mind saying. But I would’ve turned my own brother in to the Secret Service if I heard him mentioning ANYTHING about killing a president. This teacher was conveying a sentiment that went well beyond teaching Geometry. I sincerely wouldn’t be surprised if this dude was a member of the…never mind.

What makes our country stand apart from so many is how we ostensibly deal with people we put in power. We use the power of the vote to remove a person from office, not by bullet or by coup d’état. For the most part, we haven’t followed the lead of other nations who would just as soon see a person dead than see them serve out a full term. Even when I’ve watched these so-called United States become more and more divided, at least I could boost that we’re still pretty civil. Now, I’m not so sure.

hey Dre,
This is symptomatic of our current politics, society and media. Every since Reagan was in office (as far back as I can remember) it’s gotten worse and worse. I thought it had reached it’s zenith with G.W. and all the “Hail to the thief”, “He’s not MY president”, etc., rhetoric. Now it’s the wackos on the right that feel they have the right to say anything. This is the problem with no civility. People expect to be able to say anything they want, but get offended when someone else does the same thing. Everyone wants two separate sets of rules.

Civility? Anon allowed his political bent to lead, striking out at you because of your political leaning, or his perception of it. Note, he used his post to attack you, and not the professor who used his office/position to contemplate the assassination of the president. Now, I wonder why?

It appears that one’s devotion to the infallibility of their political position overrides commonsense, decency–and, yes, civility.

“That’s odd. I seem to remember being pretty good at math without needing a visual of a dead United States president.”

Right! As boring as Geometry was for me growing up, outlining angles to kill a President would not have been the best way to liven up the discussion. But when the President is a Muslim, Communist, and Socialist, I guess it’s all OK.